Aussie Zoo: Home of Steve Irwin

Whenever I thought about Australia one person came to mind. Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. Today I went to the Australian Zoo and was extremely excited. The day didn’t go exactly as planned in the morning. Four of us (Tyler, Dean, Amy, and myself) had originally booked a shuttle bus to get to the zoo and we missed it by seconds as we watched it drive away from us. What an absolute bummer. Luckily for us we caught the public bus that came 25 minutes later. I hoped that this incident wasn’t going to ruin my day.

Upon arrival I was feeling much better. The first thing that we did was walk to the crocodiles. There were heaps of them all over. They varied in sizes and all had one thing in common; they just sat flat on their belly as still as a rock. After we went to “Roo Heaven” to feed and play with more kangaroos. Of course this was the highlight of my day because they are so friendly and absolutely love when they get their chest rubbed because they can’t reach it with their own arms. That brought us to noon where we saw a croc show. There were different birds flying all around. Then came this one crocodile that was big and vicious. It was really entertaining and sad at the same time because they showed videos of Steve Irwin on the television screen. After the show came the elephants. If we didn’t miss the bus in the morning we would have been able to feed elephants but we just missed that. We still saw them put on a neat act for us. The koala walk was fun as always because we were allowed to pet one for free. They can be boring because they sleep for 20 hours a day. As an American that rarely gets the opportunity to see and pet koalas, it is always fascinating.

There were plenty more animals that we also saw such as: tigers, echidnas, otters, birds, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, and snakes. We also saw Steve Irwin’s son riding his bike around the zoo, which was cool, but you couldn’t get too close. There was security with him, just like someone famous walking around the city of New York. After a long day at the Aussie zoo, it is time to start preparing for my lessons for week 3 of student teaching. The time is going by so fast as Tuesday will be the quarter mark of our student teaching experience

Interschool Sport

Yesterday we had our first of four days of interschool sport. There are four OZ Tag teams total from Chancellor State Primary School and my team won two games, lost one, and tied one. The way the program was set up was a bit strange because we played one game and had our lunch break and then we played three straight games. The kids were exhausted by the final game and just wanted to sit down. Overall they played extremely hard and I think they had a blast “missing class” to play sport. I am excited for the next time we play in two weeks. One of my kids told me that I needed to encourage them more and that’s why we lost a game. She even proceeded to say, “your homework is to look up encouragement in the dictionary and write it 10 times.” Of course I laughed and told her I would do a better job of encouraging next time so that we go undefeated. I think next time I’m going to need to come up with a team chant when we huddle up to intimidate the other teams!

Not bad eh

Some pasta with broccoli and chicken in a garlic and oil sauce...not too bad just needed a little more garlic. I brought leftovers to school for lunch and my teacher said it smelt really good so not too shabby!

Got kangaroo?

Some cool pictures of what I saw in front of my classroom and what I had for dinner hahah

I can do art?

Today I taught my first art lesson. In English we are reading an Aboriginal book that mentions Australian animals such as kangaroos, koalas, and snakes. The Aboriginals always did dot paintings and since the class had done a million dot paintings already, I decided to do some lower level art. We made snakes using construction paper slips and made them into rings. After, we attached designed some aboriginal designs onto the snakes. Here I have attached a quick 15-minute snake that I had made during lunchtime to show the class as a sample. 

Going Smoothly

Hello again I apologize for the not posting anything new. Nothing too exciting has been going on now that I have a daily schedule to follow. School is going great and now that I am in week two I am slowly taking over the class more and more. I now teach all science lessons and most math lessons. The English lessons are usually split into halves so I take one half of the class. Needless to say the days are active and busy. By the time I get back from school and the gym it is about 6:30 p.m. In order to stay awake in class I have grown a slight passion for coffee. I buy a medium flat white (Aussie coffee) each morning for three dollars. It tastes good and it helps me to be coherent during the day.

Our school is also doing interschool sports starting next Friday. The competing only happens every fortnight (two weeks). The competition is on Friday and we have practices the other Friday for one hour. Why do I mention this? You are talking to the OZ Tag assistant coach. OZ tag is a combination of rugby league and flag football. I still need to get used to the concept of rugby league so that I can help them with strategies.

As far as my daily life is concerned, I would say it has been the same. I still need to try and save money so groceries are all store brand. As most know, I love my red meat as well as my chicken. Still need to work on those veggies. Rice and pasta are always a necessity and sometimes I will make potatoes instead. For those that are jealous that I would be at the beach, I haven’t gone in a fortnight now because the weather hasn’t cooperated well. I can’t go after school because the sun is down by 5:30. If there is any other news I will be sure to post, but for now that is all. 

Back to School

Yesterday made me feel like I was a kid again. I think so. 6:00 a.m. my wonderful scary alarm goes off and it was time to get ready for school. The only difference was that twelve years ago I wasn't looking forward to school. It was all about the five extra minutes of sleep. The messy hair and dirty clothes were certainly not a problem back than. Now the shirt and pants are ironed down to the seam and the hair is shining and I'm ready for school. The 5 Chancellor colleagues met up for the 7:30 bus and arrived at school a little before 8. After getting off the bus we walk to school for about 10 minutes and saw some huge male kangaroos. They can be found on the school grounds, where most often the teachers will guide them off the grounds. Upon arrival we were all greeted by our host principal. He gave us the good ol' lesson on professionalism and expectations. They were concerned about our dress code but I was more concerned about the dress code of some of the teachers. Holy macro I didn't know that teachers could wear basketball shorts and an old raggedy polo to school with high socks.

I met my teacher for a bit and she introduced me to the students. There are 27 students in the class which is definitely much larger than the classrooms back in the states. I only grasped about half of the students' names. To me they all look alike so I have a feeling it is going to be quite some time until I can put the names to the faces of all 27 students. The students are definitely much more polite though. They always say thank you Mr. Kok for almost everything. When speaking to the children, if they can't hear me they won't say "what?" Instead they will say pardon. It is so weird because it sounds so proper. The day went fairly quick because it was a new setting for myself. In this term the students will be learning about probability in math, phases of matter in science, author studies in ELA, and important figures of Australia in history. It shouldn't be too harsh I think those are manageable topics that I can relate to.

School finished at 3:00 and I caught the 4:20 bus so I didn't get back until about 5:10. Once I got back its dinner time and by than I'm exhausted. I had some lessons to write as well so that was even more draining. Made it in bed by eleven and the routine started all over again.

The next day was the same routine, pretty sure we saw the same kangaroos hopping about. I taught about myself and New York. The students were really excited and enjoyed the pictures that I had. We had a teachers meeting with the principal after school and missed the normal bus so we didn't get back until 6:15. Thank god I didn't have any lessons to write because it was dinner time and was in bed by 8:30 for the first time ever probably. I dont know if I will see that clock strike midnigt again during the week.

Outback

Today we left Cairns and headed out west to the outback. The bus ride was fairly short but we stopped at many places. We went to a tea and coffee farm which was really neat. Both are made in two completely different styles. The outback is like a whole new planet. When I look right I see dirt and trees and when I look to the right I see the same thing. The population out west is minuscule. We actually had more people on the bus than the town itself. We arrived at our destination at 6 pm and gathered for a BBQ which lasted until about 9ish. Bed time followed right after.

The following day we woke up at 6 am to drive from Chillagoe to Winton. The travel was a full day journey though the rough dirt roads. If you look on the map you may be able to get a better idea of how far we drove today.

Underwater World

Today I went to Underwater World which is the local aquarium that is literally 2 minutes away. I was really excited to go but when I got there I was rather disappointed. The underwater shark cave was under construction so we didn't get to see any sharks. It was still neat to see different types of fish and some seals. The price was 18$ so it wasn't the worst considering I was able to kill a rainy day indoors. Hoping to get to the Steve Irwin Zoo sometime before I leave Australia.

White Water Rafting!

Snorkeling The Great Barrier Reef was fun but, YIKES white water rafting took fun to a new level. I woke up at 6 am to catch a bus up to the Tully River. The drive was about an hour and 40 minutes North. Not only did I go white water rafting but our director Colin had signed us up for extreme rafting. The water was much more intense and we were flipping over and getting pummeled by water. At certain points our whole raft was under water for a good 5 seconds. We also had the opportunity to get out of the raft and let the river pull us through a whirl underwater. Definitely one of the weirdest feelings I have had. I was underwater and was spinning in circles. At one point I was getting nervous because I was underwater for 10 seconds straight and I had no clue when I was going to pop up. Everything was moving so quick but good thing I took a deep breath before I got in the rapids. Our leader Paul was flipping us on purpose and bringing us under water falls. He certainly made the experience much more exciting. He made us paddle towards strong rapids so our boat sunk under water. We all yelled at him and the girls screamed but we were all glad he did it in the long run because we got what we paid for. Other boats didn't look like they had nearly as much fun as we did. We had our own celebratory dances after going through big falls to show off. It. was. awesome!

We also had the opportunity to climb cliffs and do a free for all jump. We did two jumps in total and the first one was definitely much more scary because it was pretty damn high. I was warm throughout the time because we had thermal water shirts on. I am so glad I didn't wear my sneakers and paid the 4$ to rent shoes because everyones sneakers got completely soaked. This was definitely one of the most exciting and thrilling experiences that I have encountered throughout my 21 years. If I could go back and redo it again I would in a heartbeat.